FYEO2  -  The ultimate JPEG converter

by Frank Lyonnet

RISC User is proud to bring you one of the best JPEG converters and viewers available for RISC OS - For Your Eyes Only.

For Your Eyes Only or FYEO2 as it is now commonly known was originally released as a shareware application almost three and a half years ago. Since then it has undergone numerous improvements and enhancements and has generated an enthusiastic following. The last shareware version was released in March 1996 and provided support for non-Risc PC Colour Card Gold users.

RISC User has now purchased all rights to For Your Eyes Only, and all future versions, from version 2.03 onwards, will appear exclusively on the RISC User Theme Discs.

For Your Eyes Only is first and foremost a JPEG image viewer, converting JPEG files into Acorn Sprites. It can, however, also handle GIF, PPM/PBM and Targa images.

Getting started
To run FYEO2, click on its icon in the RISC User menu system or double-click on its icon in the Filer window. The FYEO2 welcome screen will appear and an icon will appear on the icon bar. To close the welcome screen, click a mouse button. FYEO2 supports Acorn's Help application, so you don't need to read the rest of these instructions if you don't want to.

To convert an image, either double-click on the image's icon if it is correctly filetyped (GIF=&695, JPEG=&C85, Targa=&69E and PPM/PBM=&69E), or drag the icon to the FYEO2 icon on the icon bar. In the latter case, FYEO2 will automatically set the image's filetype if it recognises it.

Stopping a conversion
FYEO2 multitasks while converting images, so you can continue using other applications while it is busy. To stop an image being converted or processed, close the image's window by clicking on it's Close icon.

The image menu
Once an image has been converted by FYEO2, clicking Menu over the image window will display a menu containing three items: Pic Info, Zoom, and Save. The first option provides useful information about the original and converted image, the second allows you to resize the display, while the third allows you to save the output Sprite to any Filer window or application.

The Choices window
To access the FYEO2 Choices window, click Select on the FYEO2 icon bar icon or select the Choices... option from the icon bar menu. The FYEO choices window will open, from which you can open the Output, Input or Miscellaneous choices windows. Any changes you make to the various options in these windows will only take effect after you have clicked on the OK or Save buttons. Clicking on Default and then OK will restore FYEO2 to its 'factory' settings.

Output choices
The Output choices window allows you to specify the number of colours, resolution, dithering and scaling of the converted image. Use Acorn's Help application to obtain information on each item in this window.

Input choices
The Input choices window allows you to specify the resolution of the image to be converted. This is set to 90x90dpi by default. Use Acorn's Help application to obtain information on each item in this window.

Miscellaneous choices
This window allows you to specify whether or not images dragged to the FYEO2 icon bar icon are automatically filetyped.

Icon sprites
For Your Eyes Only has always used its own icon sprites for the JPEG, GIF, PPM/PBM and Targa file formats. Rather than just replace these with the 'official' icon sprites, and upset those of you who have grown attached to the FYEO2 sprites, we have included both sets inside the FYEO2 application on the disc. To change to the 'official' sprites, open the FYEO2 Filer window by holding down the Shift key and double-clicking on FYEO2, and then rename !Spr22_alt to !Sprites22. You will need to double-click on !Boot inside FYEO2 for the changes to take effect.

Bugs and Fixes
1) Under RISC OS 3.10, the program and the Desktop will crash if you attempt to change mode while all the Settings windows are open. This is due to a bug in the Acorn's BorderUtils module, and can be cured by loading the BorderUtils module supplied with Acorn's !NewLook application.

2) The current WimpSlot setting in the !Run file is sufficient for displaying up to 26 images at the same time. Attempting to display more images will cause FYEO to exit, without any error message, due to a lack of memory. To be able to display more than 26 images at the same time, increase the WimpSlot value by 32K or more.

Credits
- JPEG, TARGA, PBM decompression routines: Frank Lyonnet and the Independant JPEG Group.
- GIF decompression routines: David Koblas and the Independent JPEG Group.
- Quantization and dithering: Frdric Elisei.
- Scaling: Frank Lyonnet
- Wimp Interface: Frank Lyonnet.

 Copyright RISC User Magazine 1996
